Club historian Michael Roberts selects his Collingwood best 23 based on performances on Anzac Day across the last 30 years.

Thirty years of Anzac Day games have given us a treasure trove of memories that will last forever – huge marks, clutch goals and heart stopping results.

Those games have also helped define the careers of many of the participants. It’s the biggest home-and-away match of the year and you can make a big name for yourself by turning it on in games like this.

So this year, as we celebrate the 30^th anniversary of one of the great days on the football calendar, we set out to choose a Collingwood team designed for Anzac Day.

These are the players who always seemed to shine on the April 25 stage.

Some choices were easy: Swanny, for example, always produced something special on Anzac Day and Pendles has won three Anzac Medals. But others were more problematic.

We tried to make it more about a body of work rather than a ‘one-hit wonder’ situation, but there were a few instances where I couldn’t help myself, such as with Mark McGough, whose ‘one-hit’ was so extraordinary that we just had to include him.

Of course there were plenty who were unlucky, including big names like Travis Cloke, Dale Thomas and Scott Russell.

But there isn’t room for everyone, and good players were always going to miss out.

But this is a seriously good team. And we’d love to have seen it in action – on Anzac Day.

Defenders

Heath Shaw

So much drive out of defence and one who always typified the Anzac spirit

Darcy Moore

Obviously a great player and who better to deliver the post-match speech?

Scott Burns

Absolute spirit animal through so many Anzac (and other) contests in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Ben Johnson

Won the Medal in 2006 and was famously called ‘Craig’ when being announced.

James Clement

So many famous battles with James Hird, among others.

Nick Daicos

The rest of the midfield is so strong that we can afford to play him off half-back.

Midfielders

Brodie Grundy

Played plenty of good games on Anzac Day, but his performance in 2022, when he kept playing on and guiding us to a win despite having done his PCL, was truly heroic

Scott Pendlebury

Three Anzac Medals say it all.

Dane Swan

Unforgettable goals, mesmerising performances, and lots of cheek – just about the first name on the teamsheet.

Steele Sidebottom

Always a great performer in all games against the Bombers.

Nathan Buckley

Many great games and moments on Anzac Day and was single-handedly responsible for the first draw – and all the mythology that flowed from it – by choosing to pass in the dying seconds rather than try for a score himself.

Paul Seedsman

People forget how good he was in the Anzac Day game in 2015.

Forwards

Alan Didak

Nobody loved a big stage more than Dids, and he even pulled out a rare speccie too.

Chris Tarrant

An Anzac Medal in a losing side for the mercurial Taz.

Jordan De Goey

That goal out of mid-air in 2018, the sealer in 2019 – Jordy’s had some big moments on Anzac Day.

Paul Medhurst

How good would it be to see the 2008 Anzac Medallist playing in the same forward line as Jamie Elliott?

Sav Rocca

Two Anzac Medals and nine goals in the first game – can’t do much more than that.

Jamie Elliott

Mark of the Year (almost), goals from outside the boundary – Jamie has done it all.

Interchange

Mark McGough

Winning the Anzac Medal in just your second game and as a teenager still at school, is still an outrageous thing to have done.

Adam Treloar

Remember Ads and Crispy taking the ball the length of the field for a goal in 2018? He won the Medal that day.

Anthony Rocca

His huge torpedo goal in ’97 would have been enough on its own to win him selection here.

Jarryd Blair

We’d bring him on late to soccer through the winner with seconds left.

Jack Ginnivan (sub)

Gee his game in 2022 was something special.